I've played a couple. Most notably the English-language RE: Alistair, which was good, with decent art and attractive boys. I'd like to play more, but they either aren't all that good (especially in terms of art) or they're in Japanese with no English patch and I've yet to get around to working out the text extractor and translator I have.

In my opinion, 2010 has been the year in which otome games grew from being 99.9 percent untranslated and super obscure to only 99.5 percent untranslated and rather obscure. In other words, even though this category of visual novels is still in its niche, there's been some interesting changes:

English speaking fans stepped up and started releasing more content. In addition to RE: Alistair, there was the second Fantasia Otome Game Series entry (Requiem of the Abyss), Frozen Essence, Date Warp, Memoirs of an Angel (currently in demo form), and Castle Chase. On the Lemma Soft forums, a new category was created for "G x B" games, so there's plenty more games and visual novels in the works there. Hopefully a good number of these indie/freeware games will be completed.

Fan translators are releasing some impressive content. The fan translation of Tokimeki Memorial Girl's Side for the Nintendo DS started in spring 2010, and the final English patch was released a few weeks ago. An anonymous group released a full translation of Starry Sky in Spring. There's a number of other translations which are making progress, and which will hopefully be finished.

There's been loose talk about professional translations of one of Idea Factory's visual novels for some time. In fall 2010, Aksys Games created two surveys about potential otome games in English. We shall see if any major announcements are made in 2011.

I'm quite aware that Sturgeon's Law has a frustrating effect on this media category this small. Since so few otome games are available for English speaking fans, there's a tiny number that are easy to recommend. Furthermore, not only is there a stigma against media and games aimed at girls, but there's plenty of negative attitudes among fans. (See this interview with the person who's trying to translate The Exorcism of Maria at http://visualnovelaer.wordpress.com/2010/09/19/danzai-no-maria-maverynthia for some criticism of fans, and then read the Hakuoki and Togainu no Chi interviews on the same site.)

...That said, Hanako Games' latest indie game, Magical Diary, has been released. It's somewhere between a life simulation and a romance game. There's a modest amount of RPG and puzzle elements. Read more about it here: http://www.hanakogames.com/magical_diary.shtml The demo is free, and the full PC/Mac/Linux game is $25 US.

Haven't heard any rumors about official localizations of the Starry Sky visual novels. In the last few months, Jast has announced plans to create official translations of some visual novels which had complete or nearly complete fan translations. It could happen, assuming that Honeybee, the company which has created the Starry Sky series, is interested...

Finally, Kousaka Kirino asked for otome game recommendations. I'm not sure what you enjoy, much less what you would like. Let me start by naming some G x B visual novels which are in English...

...and also name a few more complex G x B games which are available in English:

1. Always Remember Me, an indie game created by Winter Wolves.
2. Chrono Days Sim Date, a freeware Flash game. May be Pacthesis' best game thus far.
3. Love and Order, also from Winter Wolves.
4. Spirited Heart, a Raising Sim in which the player takes the role of a young woman.
5. The first two Tokimeki Memorial Girl's Side games have been translated by fans. The patches won't work with actual import Nintendo DS cartridges — you have to use emulation.
6. X-Note, a fairly serious simulation available from Zeiva Inc.

Guys, it's official!! JAST USA is publishing the Starry Sky Series.
And Aksys is publishing Hakuoki: Demon of the Fleeting Blossom which will be released for PSP, in stores and on PSN, in the first quarter of 2012.
I'm excited!!

So if you want to encourage the company to translate this material, then I suggest politely emailing them, and stating that you're willing to purchase official translations. While you're at it, be sure to participate on Jast's forums.

On the Gbatemp.net forums, I noticed that Jjjewel — the person who was in charge of the Tokimemo Girls Side translation project — was talking about a side project. It looks like she will be working on Otometeki Koi Kakumei Love Revo for DS, using the Korean version. See https://sites.google.com/site/tokimemogs1/upcoming-projects/001 for some details and screens. Also, keep in mind that she is involved with translations of Blood of Bahamut and Love Plus, so that's probably why she added this disclaimer: "Don't expect any release soon."

A full English patch for the short freeware visual novel Hatoful Boyfriend was released maybe two days ago. Already, it has a pretty impressive tropes page...

After months of delays, a free demo of Flower Shop: Winter in Fairbrook is available, and a beta version is being sold. The best places to offer feedback are the Winter Wolves forum, the current thread on Lemma Soft, and Sakevisual's blog.

btw wanted to say thanks for all the info dorkatlarge! made it real easy for me to get a lot of things together. I am hoping to see otoge fan translations ramp up. All I need is to get all the resources organized and present it in a super-easy-simple-stupid way. great things are coming in the future :3

Since the last time I updated, Flower Shop: Winter in Fairbrook was released. There's some upcoming indie games in the western scene which will involve varied pairings, but I can't think of any planned games that will feature just GxB content at the moment. In the freeware scene, the rule is always "wait and see what gets finished, but always remember, many projects die quietly."

Just when it seemed like Ate the Moon Translation was just about done with The Second Reproduction, all the works-in-progress vanish from the site, and there's a "final post" which simply says "Sorry guys... Bye bye, lol. And Happy New Year!" I have no idea what happened.

Meanwhile, it seems like Jjjewel is one of the best project organizers, and one of the most dedicated people in the entire video games fan translation scene. Just days after the final Loveplus patch, the much-rumored Otometeki project has officially started. Its dedicated page is at https://sites.google.com/site/loverevoguide/home , and there's a relevant thread on the gbatemp.net forums.

Thank you kindly for keeping this thread alive. Also, I can't find half the games you listed... especially the Fantasia ones, their forum seems dead, as are their download links. Also, the art looks terrible...

The first two installments of the Fantasia Otome Game Series are currently available on the Renai Archives at http://www.renai.us/search?q=fantasia . There are relevant forum threads for future installments on the Lemma Soft forums. I'm also looking at the series' dedicated forums, and seeing a good number of recent posts.

When it comes to Freeware Games, expect some sort of compromise. People are usually working with No Budget. If a freeware game emphasizes story, gameplay, or experimentation, then it might not have quality graphics. Don't be surprised if the images in a free game suffer from GIS Syndrome. Conversely, if the emphasis is on graphics, then the game might be very short or simple.

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